Customer engagement is king when it comes to SaaS. For a business’ longevity you need to entice users to keep coming back to your platform. One of the best ways to do this is to use pop-ups and widgets across your app and website.

In this blog, we'll share the eight capture widgets your SaaS company needs in order to increase customer engagement. 

8 capture widget use cases that increase customer engagement for SaaS

Start embracing customer-facing popup widgets in-app and on your website with these engagement-driving ideas.

New feature announcements widget

Go beyond the inbox, and tell users in your app about your product's latest updates and feature releases with a simple pop-up widget. Email and SMS are also great to use, however in an already flooded channel, your exciting company news may get lost. 

In-app notifications of the announcement can ensure users are seeing the news at the right time and place. As they are already in the app, they can start using the feature straight away, prompting immediate engagement. They also have the ability to provide instant feedback as well. 

This is a great opportunity to wow new users and engage your current or lapsing customers.

Onboarding prompts widget

The onboarding journey can already be quite a complicated process. Keep your new customer focused and engaged by using onboarding prompts that help them along their way to their aha moment.

This type of capture widget helps guide the user to take their next action of onboarding. There are going to be key milestones within your onboarding journey that when completed they are far more likely to become a customer, and an engaged customer at that. 

For example, when signing up to Ortto there are six actions that help the new user become set up for success. 

Let’s say upon completion of ‘Install the tracking code, the new customer then receives a capture widget prompting them to take the next step to ‘Setup the brand book’. This will help them locate the feature by taking them on a product tour at the same time. The prompts should work as messages of encouragement to help your new customers remain engaged plus fast-track them into seeing the full capability of your platform.

Tutorial videos widget

In-app widgets or notifications can be used to help your customer run through a tutorial video. When set up correctly, it can provide your user with the information needed to navigate themselves through a self-guided tour of your platform, or use a new feature or tool.

These product tours will help your customers get their bearings as you highlight the top features they need to know in order to firstly, use your platform and secondly reach their aha moment quicker. Once the tour is completed, prompt further customer engagement by automating a congratulations email to be sent that guides them to take the next step in their journey, or perhaps open the floor for any questions, reviews or pain points to be shared. 

Sign-up and downloads widget

Newsletter and email subscriptions and ebook downloads are the most commonly known capture widget forms. If you’re wanting to grab your user’s attention then offer content with enough value so the user is willing to share their details. 

To increase engagement with these types of widgets, ensure the widgets pop up at the right time and place. If your user has been reading a blog, and scrolled down 20% of the page, then it’s time to prompt them to subscribe. Once you have their email then it’s all about learning as much as you can about the customer to send them on a personalized nurture or conversion journey.

The other point to remember is ensuring your content is strong enough for the user to want to pass over their details. This is especially valid for ebook or whitepaper downloads. If you’re not seeing enough engagement on these, then it might be time to refresh the content or test the widgets being used.  

Cross and upsell widget

In keeping your customers engaged, it’s essential to know exactly where they are in your customer journey along with any pain points that may have arisen. 

Let's say you're a SaaS like Dropbox, and when users sign up they are given a small data storage allowance. You could set up a capture widget to trigger when the customer is nearing their usage allowance or has exhausted it. The widget can guide the user to upgrade their storage plan.

By making the widget relevant and relatable to that customer, they are far more likely to click on the link. They receive more data storage space,  a great user experience, and you’ve achieved a great upselling opportunity. 

Webinar reminders widget

The countdown capture widget is an excellent tool to use if you’re needing to create a sense of urgency and therefore drive user engagement to take the desired action.  In fact, using the countdown widget is known to increase conversion by about 8%, compared to not using a widget at all. 

This type of widget is great to use for events like webinars. By creating urgency around registration, you will boost attendance rates.

Those who attend the webinar (or register to watch at a later date) can then be sent further relevant content, product features or invites to future webinars to ensure that they see the value of the product and the company.

Customer satisfaction widget

Check in with your customers using capture widgets to prompt them to share their experience with your brand. This not only increases customer engagement but also means you can gather first-hand knowledge and insights directly from your in-app or on-website users. 

The chance of gaining accurate and meaningful feedback when the user is already using the platform is significantly higher. 

As they engage with the brand, you can then acknowledge their response and personalize their next steps. Using a platform like Ortto will allow you to set up a journey depending on the feedback or score received. For example, say they clicked on a low score indicating they were unhappy with their experience, this then triggers an email journey to ask the customer for more detail as to why they are unhappy. This feedback trigger can also prompt a Slack notification for your customer support team to be aware of any displeased customers, so action can be taken.

This automation can also be set up for positive feedback as well. If the user scores highly then an email can be sent asking for them to complete a review on a third-party site, or even tag them within your CDP as a potential brand advocate or customer case study option. 

There are also options for users to complete a CSAT survey to express their sentiments about your website or application.  

Ask a question widget

This includes small quizzes, polls or surveys. For the right kind of audience and the right kind of prompting or incentive, this is a great way to increase engagement with your customers. 

For example, create a capture widget poll to prompt your customers to share what type of content they want to see more of, or what tool or feature they use the most. This encourages engagement while also giving you insights into how your customers use your product and where their interests lie. 

Running a poll like this through Ortto means that the answers can be automatically updated into customers' profiles that sit within the CDP. You can now use this to segment them into different nurture journeys, designed specifically for them. By creating relevant, personalized journeys, your customers will feel valued and more likely to engage with the company.

Best practice for lead capture widgets

Here’s what you need to keep in mind when creating and implementing your customer engagement capture widgets. 

All about the design

Make it pop by using bright colors or an image to grab the attention of the user. When choosing colors there are a few important factors to be mindful of. You should be creating contrast for the most important elements of the popup, by doing this you create a point for the user to focus on. And always remember the colors chosen need to remain consistent to your brand colors to provide a smooth user experience. 

It’s also important to ensure that the copy is short and sweet. Anything with too many words or looks overly complicated will be filed directly in the ‘too hard basket’ by the user. They should be able to skim the copy and understand what needs to be done. 

If the user needs to take action and find out more information, then offering a ‘find out more’ call-to-action or simply linking to the relevant documents is an easy fix. The key takeaway here is to only ask for what you need, whether it's a rating, answering a question or downloading an ebook, then allow your users to get back to using your product. 

Positioning and timing are everything 

This is where choosing the right widget to suit the messaging and web or app positioning is important. Here is a quick guide on the widgets to choose from and how they’re typically used. 

• Bar: Sits at the top of a web page as a full-length bar.
  Best used: For pinning important announcements (like webinars) and driving new subscribers.

• Popup: A traditional popup window that grabs attention and helps you grow your mailing list.

• Notification: A popup in the bottom right corner of the webpage
  Best used: For making announcements about events, webinars, or sales and driving subscribers to your blog or emailing list.

• Takeover: Full screen, front and center of your screen.
  Removes all distractions to get the full attention of your visitor.
  Best used: Sparingly. Use only for your biggest and most important messages and to grow your mailing list.

• Banner: Appears as a mid-stream banner pop-up
  Best used: To grab attention and share important information.

• Form: A form that can be embedded anywhere on your website or app to drive new subscribers.

• Spin the wheel: A gamified discount wheel to drive subscribers and sales. 
  Best used: Most commonly used for capturing ecommerce customers, but can be used by any business type, including SaaS.

The takeover widget is by far the most intrusive, and will definitely interrupt your user’s session, so use them sparingly so as to not annoy their visit. The other types of widgets offer flexibility when it comes to placement on page. For example, Ortto offers the choice of nine different positions. 

The positioning of the widget around the edge of the browser provides a far better user experience as they are still able to continue on with their session without needing to stop. Then as it catches their eye, they are able to choose to either find out more or minimize it for a later time. By testing the positioning on your site, you will be able to work out which works best for your audience.

Don’t overdo it

As mentioned, widgets are a great tool to use. However, it’s important to not annoy customers with multiple pop-ups on each page they visit. Here are a few recommendations as you evaluate where the capture widgets sit on your website or application: 

• Choose a few high-traffic pages and ensure they are in a non-intrusive but noticeable location. You don’t want to disrupt your user, however, you do want to grab their attention at the same time. 

• Offer the user a chance to opt-out of the widget displaying for them.

• Set up a regular cadence for you and your team to check for any bugs, broken links, or confusing copy on your live widgets.

Always follow up

If you have gone to the trouble of encouraging your customers to engage with you, then make sure you keep up the conversation. If a user enters their data then it’s best practice to acknowledge them by providing an immediate response for their participation. It can be in the form of a thank you for participating popup, or an email to prompt the user to send through more information, or even a notification saying a customer support representative will reach out. 

Let’s say you asked for customer feedback, and they wanted more information about a specific topic, well ensure they receive that within the next few hours. If they have taken time out of their day to help you out, then swiftly responding to them will reinforce your customer support and loyalty.  

Think about the timing

It’s important that your capture widget is seen at the right time (and in the right place), but without rushing or bombarding the user with information. Allow them to engage with your

content before seeing their first widget. The longer a user is on your website, the less likely they are to leave, in turn, means this is the safest time to introduce a capture widget to them. 

When creating your widget in Ortto, the widget can be triggered once the user completes a task. For example, if they are on the page for 3 seconds or they scroll through 60% of the page or they go to exit the page. 

Final word

Capture widgets provide an excellent channel for you to stay in touch with your customers. By following these best practices when creating your own capture widgets you will see the true benefits and growth in your customers' engagement with your SaaS company.